Arbour to campaign for independent war-crimes inquiry in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 May 2010, 23:29 GMT]Louise Arbour, president of the NGO International Crisis
Group (ICG) and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "will examine these allegations [of war crimes in Sri Lanka] and make the case for an independent international inquiry as a necessary step in making Sri Lanka's tenuous and bitter peace more just and sustainable," said a note sent to the invitees for a conference on "War Crimes in Sri Lanka" to be held Monday at the premises of the event's joint sponsor, Chatham House, London.

17th May falls on the first anniversary of the end of fighting in Sri Lanka when the Liberation Tigers' military leadership fought to death in the battle fields in Mullaitheevu shores.

Nearly 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed during the last 5 months of fighting, according to a former UN spokesperson.

Louis Arbour, President of ICG

"The Sri Lankan security forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) repeatedly violated international humanitarian law during the last five months of their 30-year civil war. Although both sides committed atrocities throughout the conflict, there are credible accusations that the scale and nature of violations grew much worse from January 2009 to the government's declaration of victory in May," the note to the invitees further said.

Arbour is intimately familiar with Sri Lanka's history, war and the human rights situation that has been deteriorating for several years.

During the same visit, highlighting the reluctance of Sri Lanka in ratifying the Rome Treaty, Arbour said, "[i]n light of the documented violations of international humanitarian law, Sri Lanka should seriously consider joining the 105 countries which have ratified the Rome Treaty creating the International Crime Court."

Sri Lanka's diplomatic mission to the UN, rejected Arbour’s comments as “pathetically unenforceable threats,” and added that Sri Lanka “will not be deterred by thinly veiled threats attempting to undermine the morale of its military, deter its military campaigns and save separatist terrorism from elimination.”